Welcome One And All To Spectacular Death's Website.

Spectacular Death (A-Llane-US) is the total WOW experience with lots of fun at a casual pace. We see and go to all places in the WOW universe from Classic to current content, PvP and Arena. This is no-pressure raiding at its finest with friendly, helpful people interested in working through all WOW has to offer. We will never have a realm first in any endgame, but we will have the most fun when we arrive. Our "race" to see everything is more of a saunter with an emphasis on fun. Our guild motto is "Here. Hold my drink and watch this," so you can see where our emphasis lies.

This guild is not for everyone, however. You must review the Code of Conduct before asking to join. It is also recommended that you read our Raiding and Loot Guidelines.

For any questions about the above information, please talk to Gimmlette or any officer. Officers are listed under the "SD Guide" section of the web site menu. If you are interested in hopping on the bus for the ride, please fill out our application. It's under the "Join Us" button at the upper right. You will be contacted by Gimmlette or the membership officer after the application is received.

Last Wednesday, I worried about which 9 people would go with me into our first guild Dragon Soul run. At the time, we had 17 people signed up. By Friday, we had 26 for Saturday and 24 on Sunday. I shouldn't have worried. Everyone got to go!

Look at all of you! I am so thrilled that this many people signed up and came to the raid. I forgot to take a photo of everyone who came on Sunday. It was most of the same people but we had a few new faces too.

The goal of this raid was just to see the place. If we downed anything, it was gravy and a huge feather in our collective caps. I had to ask where the heck the raid was because I didn't even know. A lot of us have, by choice, not gone into the raid via LFR because we want to do it with our guild. This was our chance to see just what all the fuss was about. First boss, Morchok.

Look at that! We killed him! It took us three tries but we downed him. I forgot to write down who got gear but we did have to shard one piece of plate healing gear. Oh well. A crystal for the bank. Three tailoring patterns dropped over the 2 days, and were won by Pinkel, Leitha and Delamonde.

From there, we went to see Warlord Zon'ozz. That was less productive than Morchok.

On Sunday, we brought along our orphans and traumatized another group.

Zon'ozz, hereafter referred to as "Ping Pong" for the fight mechanics, just proved to be a bit out of our capabilities. We aren't quite sure how to keep everything going and move. We're not the most mobile of guilds, never have been, so a fight where you have to MOVENAO can give us quite a few fits.

After spending an hour on Sunday working on Zon'ozz, we moved on to another boss, Yor'shaj the Unsleeping. He's commonly referred to as the "Skittles" boss for the colored oozes that surround him and which are called during the fight. I neglected to take screenshots during this fight.

Personally, I far prefer this fight to Zon'ozz. It was a lot of fun. We didn't have too many problems with the oozes other than the randomness of which colors get called during the ooze phases of the fight. I am so pleased with how quickly we reacted when Ranhol called out which color we needed to kill first. We got some bad color combinations which proved to be our undoing. The next time we come in here, we'll do Yor'shaj before Zon'ozz. I think we can get him down, too. If you are interested in the numbers, here's a link to the forum thread with the raid parses.

We exceeded my goals for the weekend. At least 28 people got to see this fight in a guild setting. It's harder and has more mechanics than the LFR. We are a guild that keeps plugging and we made definite progress, even on Zon'ozz. We will be back again after we clean up a huge bunch of "by request" raids and raids for our guild commercial.

I want to thank Ranhol and Thoryn for leading. I could not have done this. (As a side note, the Raid Leader Officer position is still open.) And I want to thank everyone who signed up and came over 2 days. It was so much fun.

Clockwise from upper right: Landro's Lil' Lich King, 2 Slashdance, Landro's Lil' Xt, Path of Illidan, Paint Bomb, Sandbox Tiger and 2 Path of Cenarius. These loot cards are the prizes for the "What Not to Wear: Spectacular Death Edition" contest which is coming up THIS FRIDAY, May 4th! We have celebrity judges! Are you ready?

There is still time to collect fugly gear. You will need a helm, chest, pants, boots and gloves. Belt, cloak and bracers are optional. No weapons, jewelry or trinkets. Start in the guild bank if you're unsure what to use. Go hit the AH. I found some of the fugliest gear is from the below level 30 areas and it's all really cheap.

Your outfit will be judged on a 1 to 5 point scale. One is, "Awwww. That's so cute," while five is, "I think I'm gonna be sick." I anticipate there will be ties so that's why there are a number of cards available. The winner(s) are the ones with the highest point total. There will be 2nd, 1st and Grand Prizes awarded.

Meet in Darnassus at 8:30 p.m. on May 4th. If you're going to be late, as I know some of you are, please let me know. We will form up alphabetically. Those who come late will go at the end. I need someone not interested in collecting gear to be the "stage manager" of sorts, helping get the next contestant moving down our "catwalk" toward the judges. Practice walking. Figure out which keyboard combination causes your character to walk.

Lastly, winners will have the option of me mailing the card to you or me activating it and then sending you the code numbers for redemption. This contest is not void in Canada as so many of them are so our Canadian guild members can have a card sent to them. I'll happily mail it. Any cards not won will be saved for our 5th anniversary blow-out in December. I have the Footsteps of Illidan and the Path of Cenarius, if you'd like to see what those look like. Someone has the sandbox tiger because they brought it out in Westfall last night.

It's the end of the month. At this point in time, I start putting together the schedule for next month. I have a request for AQ40, plus, we haven't done it in our naked, no healing mode. So, you can bet AQ will be on the schedule. I also have a request for Ulduar.

I looks like you folks want Karazhan and Icecrown Citadel to be the BC and Wrath raids in which we die for the commercial. We still have Cho'gall mocking us and we got as far as Atramedes in Blackwing Descent. Just him and the Nefarian/Onyxia combo left and that raid is cleared. The commercial still needs the jumping off the blimp with fishing poles equipped and the running over Gimm while on elephants or motorcycles. You can bet, with all the fun we had last Friday, spontaneous attacks on Orgrimmar will just pop up. Maybe you'll know. Maybe you won't. And we will have our usual disorganized Guild Battleground Nights.

With a major US holiday at the end of the month, it's hard to schedule anything during that weekend. Is there something you'd like to run? I'll need to know by the end of the evening on Friday. The schedule will be posted on Monday, April 30th.

It's also time for serious and not so serious nominations for Guild Member of the Month. Has someone gone out of their way to be helpful to you or to the guild? Is there someone working behind the scenes whom you think needs a major shout out? If so, I need to know who and why on an in-game letter to me by the end of day on Sunday. Officers can be nominated. We didn't recognize anyone in April so every single person is eligible this month.

This Friday, in one of our characteristically silly events, we're going to embark on the great top to bottom "Have Group Will Travel" event.

As you all know, HGWT is going away in Mists. The game designers felt that people were not going out to explore this vast world they created. They were simply grouping with someone, hitting a button and showing up. For a guild like Spectacular Death, this perk has opened up the world to our shenanigans and allowed us to do things it would take at least an hour to assemble before doing. So, we mourn its imminent demise and we're going to celebrate it by making a movie. Worandpaws actually suggested this idea in the web site chat room and I took it and ran with it.

The idea is that we will move a group of people as fast as possible from the top of one continent to the bottom. On Friday, that's going to be the Eastern Kingdoms. We'll be starting from the Isle of Quel'Danas and heading south to Booty Bay. This is an all-levels event so if you'd like your level 23 to participate, come on along.

This is how it's going to work. We will mass on the Isle first. I would like a warlock in the party initially, to summon any less than level 70's who wish to come along so we don't use up someone's HGWT. Once we are all together, someone flies south to Zul'Aman and summons us. Once we're all there, someone flies to Light Hope and summons us. Once there, someone goes to Chill Wind and summons us. On and on we'll go, hitting the major flight paths in each zone until we get to Booty Bay. We will have to wait when we get to Duskwood, however, as I promised Hermit he could summon us to his favorite spot in that zone. Let's see how fast we can move a group of people from the top of the Eastern Kingdoms to the bottom. I'll be documenting it via a movie that we can have as a record of this wonderful guild perk. Come dressed for the occasion. The festivities kick off at 9 p.m. on Friday.

Speaking of dressing for the occasion, how are you doing with your fugly gear? We are less than 2 weeks away from this amazing contest. Next week, I'll be posting photos of the prizes available to be won. Hit up the guild bank for gear. We have a lot in there. And are you filling Nounours' mailbox with Cata mats? Read the contest below. We are less than 700 flasks away from the Better Leveling Through Chemistry guild achievement. We are at 60,659 out of 75,000 daily quests done. We are at 233,932 horde killed out of 250,000 for Guild Gankers. We've crafted 217 out of 500 i359 items for Master Crafter. And we've fished 28,181 out of 50,000 fish or other items out of pools. Yes, fishing wreckage counts.

We have Firelands on Tuesday and Wednesday and our first foray into Dragon Soul as a guild on Saturday and Sunday. Forget what you learned in the LFR. Guild Dragon Soul is not the same.

Lastly, I'm friends with a number of non-SD people, a few of them horde. I received the following email from one of my horde-side friends over the weekend.

It's a hoot getting to see you and SD do what you folks do. Secondly,
I'd like to congratulate you on the rumblings you've stirred in the
Llane community. Obviously you've gotten under the skin of at least one
person and motivated tons more to get involved in some good old
fashioned beat downs. It's a treat seeing people perk up and salivate a
bit for PVP. Once they get the blood pumping it should be easier to show
up and participate. Congratulations on all you and your guild has
accomplished.

It's been a frustrating week, to be sure, but we are appreciated for keeping this server lively. I really, really miss the old Southshore/Tarren Mills battles of yore but I'm game to attack inns and Auction Houses and banks in major cities just for the fun of it. We come, we take over for an hour and we leave. Chaos! Confusion! Destruction! Our work here is done.

You have noticed that you can't access parts of the web site. This is on purpose. Due to our recent troubles, Squidchin and I are assessing what we want public and what we want to be guild members only. You are probably going to have to reregister and/or attach an avatar to your web site account. We will be purging accounts we don't recognize and I apologize if that accidentally is yours. I know a number of you can't register as your character because that name happens to be taken in the Enjin family. Contact Squidchin via the "Contact Us" button or via an in-game mail and we'll get you set up.

Please be patient. Unlike the reconstruction of the Congress Parkway, the bridge over the Chicago River and the Wacker Drive intersection with the Congress in Chicago, which is what this photo is from, this will not be a 3 year project. You might just be inconvenienced for a week at the most.

As always, questions should be directed to either myself or Squidchin. Thanks for your understanding.

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